“Today we went on a field trip to a shooting range. It was inside a building. When we got there, a man told us about how to use the gun. A woman called up a couple of people and gave them targets, while the rest of us watched. When it was my turn, I went to the shooting box. On the left side there was a red button. On the shelf in the shooting box was a prop that you laid your gun on. On the right side was a can to put in the empty cartridges. Above me, at about my forehead, there was a clip that you put your target onto. Then you pressed the red button, and it took the target down to the wall, which was 15.2 meters away. After you sent the target down, you propped up your gun, and the man gave you five cartridges. You load the gun, and put your elbows on the table. You hold the gun with one hand on the barrel and the other hand gripping the piece of wood sticking down behind the trigger. I looked through the sight, which was a little ring above the trigger with another little ring a couple of inches from the end of the barrel. That ring had another little ring inside it. I made the little ring inside the ring at the end of the barrel go around the black ring on the target. Then I shot the gun by pulling the trigger. After I shot three times, I pulled the target back. The man looked at the target card and adjusted the sight so it was right for my eyes. And then I shot the target card two more times. After than I took a different target, shot it five times, flipped it over, and used the target on the other side. And I did that again; twenty-five shots in all. After I was finished, I put a rubber band around the cards, and took them to a woman who counted up my score, depending upon where I shot the target. My score was 169 out of 200. Two of my teachers came with us, a man and a woman. The woman teacher dropped her gun on the floor! Everyone thought it was really funny that the teacher dropped her gun, until we realized that if there was a bullet in the gun, it could have shot the girl next to her in the foot. :O The whole thing was really fun!”

Eden's Shooting Targets. Her score was 169/200. All shots were 8 or better.

Despite already having something like ten birthday parties this summer while in the U.S., Eden wanted to have a birthday party with her classmates when she came back to CPH. A nice tradition here in Denmark is that when a child has a birthday party, the entire class is invited. I think it helps prevent kids from feeling excluded, and builds community in the class. This all is good, because these kids are together in the same class, with the same teacher, from Grade 0 through Grade 9.

So, sixteen 11-year-olds came over for the afternoon on September 19, and we discovered that yes, tweens can sing karaoke for three hours straight.